http://homepage.ntlworld.com/andrew.etherington/month/thismonth/17.htm
August 17th, 1941
UNITED KINGDOM: London: Britain and the USSR protest to Iran about the large number of German “tourists” in Iran.
Great Britain and the Soviet Union sign a trade accord. (Jack McKillop)
U.S.S.R.: The German Army’s Heeresgruppe Nord (von Leeb) in its drive toward Leningrad captures Narva while Heeresgruppe Süd (von Rundstedt) reaches the Dniepr River at Dnepropetrovsk. Novgorod on the shores of Lake Ilmen and the Black Sea naval port of Nikolayev also falls to the Germans. (Jack McKillop)
Soviet submarine SC-216 commissioned. (Dave Shirlaw)
Soviet submarine Shch-307 is mined near Suuraari Island. (Mike Yared)(146 and 147)
CHINA: The Nationalist government endorses the Anglo-US Atlantic Charter.
U.S.A.: President Franklin D Roosevelt and Secretary of State Cordell Hull talk with Japanese Ambassador Nomura Kichasaburo. The Americans state their conditions for resuming negotiations with the Japanese. A US note to Japan is formally presented. This note maintains the lines as agreed at Placentia Bay. Since it is toned down from what was originally agreed, the British and Dutch governments do not present their notes at this time. (Jack McKillop)
On 29 August 1941 the Germans organised the first volunteers into armed units - ten Estonian, Russian and Ingermanland security battalions and the 'Anti-Partisan Regiment' (Freijagerregiment) in Army Group North, and five combat battalions (Kampfbataillone) in Army Group Centre. Attached to German divisions on anti-partisan duties or as front-line reinforcements these troops consistently proved their commitment and combat value: on 6 October 1941 mass recruitment of Soviet nationals as 'Eastern Troops' (Osttruppen) was permitted.
The first Cossack unit in the German army was the Red Army's 436th Infantry Regiment, which defected on 22 August 1941, and from October 1941- 11 Cossack cavalry squadrons were raised for anti-partisan duties with security divisions, or mounted reconnaissance for Panzer divisions, usually with one squadron (Sotnia) per division: in late 1942 these expanded to 11 battalions. In 1942 three mounted regiments, three infantry regiments and six infantry battalions were recruited with Cossack field officers.
From 15 November 1941 seven security companies were raised from inaccurately labelled 'Turkic' Caucasian and Soviet middle-eastern nationalities, and in 1942 they expanded into six 'Eastern legions' (Ostlegionen) in occupied Poland: Armenian, Azerbaijan, Georgian, North Caucasian (Ossetians, Ingushes and Chechens etc.), Turkestan (Kazakhs, Kirkhiz, Tajiks, Turkmens, Uzbeks etc.) and Volga-Tartar (Kazan Tartars, Bashkirs, Chuvashes, Udmurts etc.) Up to the fall of Stalingrad the legions recruited civilian volunteers into five ordnance, construction, and transport battalions and 200 supply and transport companies. Ex-Red Army troops joined 34 infantry battalions numbered in the 783-844 series, and 28 field battalions carrying the divisional number, but only 28 battalions saw action on the eastern front, mostly in the Caucasus.
From 1 October 1942 Estonian, Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian units were designated as 'Eastern battalions', mostly with Army Group Centre. Each battalion (Ostbataillon), about 950 strong, was allocated a German commander and a cadre of 36 German officers, NCOs and men. In January 1943 the 48 Eastern battalions (except Estonian battalions 658-660) and all Russian, Belarussian and Ukrainian Hiwis were nominally united as the Russian Liberation Army (Russkaya Osvoboditel'naya Armiya, or ROA).
The German Army In World War II by Nigel Thomas